Malaria antigen presentation in blood dendritic cells
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Malaria antigen presentation in blood dendritic cells
IRAS ID
226442
Contact name
Marta E Polak
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 29 days
Research summary
Malaria continues to be an important public health problem in the developing world. In 2015, 212 million clinical cases and 429,000 deaths were estimated worldwide. Attempts to eradicate malaria managed to eliminate the disease from numerous endemic regions, but appearance of parasite multiple-drug resistance and mosquito resistance to insecticides facilitated malaria re-emergence, and increasing transmission trend during the last few decades. In endemic areas individuals permanently exposed to malaria eventually develop clinical immunity that protects them from severe malaria and death, allowing them an almost normal life. Current investigations indicate, that sustainable and effective malaria control and elimination would require efficacious vaccine strategy. However, despite identification of several immune responses elicited by malaria parasites contributing to clinical protection, the precise mechanisms of this immunity are poorly understood, and there is as yet a lack of fundamental knowledge essential for a rational malarial vaccines design.
The purpose of this study is to improve the malaria vaccine design, by studying in the test tube how immune responses to malaria are induced. We propose an immunology, molecular biology and computer sciences integrated approach to investigate the immune responses elicited by malaria parasites. Our existing computational tools will allow high-throughput screening of malaria vaccine candidates with the optimal vaccine composition. Subsequently, the predicted candidate will be extensively tested in vitro, to determine the optimal vaccine composition.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EM/0349
Date of REC Opinion
6 Sep 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion